Mini Book Reviews: Akata Witch...

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Published: April 4th, 2011 by Viking Children's

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Format: Paperback, 349 Pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars 

Publisher's Summary:

Akata Witch transports the reader to a magical place where nothing is quite as it seems. Born in New York, but living in Aba, Nigeria, twelve-year old Sunny is understandably a little lost. She is albino and thus, incredibly sensitive to the sun. All Sunny wants to do is be able to play football and get through another day of school without being bullied. But once she befriends Orlu and Chichi, Sunny is plunged in to the world of the Leopard People, where your worst defect becomes your greatest asset. Together, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi and Sasha form the youngest ever Oha Coven. Their mission is to track down Black Hat Otokoto, the man responsible for kidnapping and maiming children. Will Sunny be able to overcome the killer with powers stronger than her own, or will the future she saw in the flames become reality?

My Thoughts:

I read this one a loud with G. I had read this one a few years ago before the second one in the series had come out and so I decided this would be a fun one to read with G. He wasn't disappointed. I love how Sunny embodies both cultures of being a black American and also an Igbo-speaking Nigerian. We loved watching Sunny befriend Orlu and Chichi and Sasha and how they finally work together and use their magic to save the world. Okorafor is not afraid to treat kids like they know things. Kids can handle all sorts of stuff and she's excellent at bringing really hard things into her books without getting too graphic age inappropriate. Her world-building of magic is phenomenal and she definitely doesn't skim on her characters. We just started the second book Akata Warrior!

Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon

Published: September 15th, 2020 by Scholastic Press

Genre: Horror, Juvenile Fiction

Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

One of our most iconic childhood games receives a creepy twist as it becomes the gateway to a nightmare world.

I went up the hill, the hill was muddy, stomped my toe and made it bloody, should I wash it?

Justin knows that something is wrong with his best friend. Zee went missing for a year. And when he came back, he was . . . different. Nobody knows what happened to him. At Zee's welcome home party, Justin and the neighborhood crew play Hide and Seek. But it goes wrong. Very wrong.

One by one, everyone who plays the game disappears, pulled into a world of nightmares come to life. Justin and his friends realize this horrible place is where Zee had been trapped. All they can do now is hide from the Seeker.

*I also read this one as part of my I Read Horror Year-Round Reading Challenge hosted by Michelle at Castle Macabre as part of the Monster Prompt.

My Thoughts:

This is a truly creepy little book about the Hide and Seek monster that will still children away if they break any of the rules. I don't remember playing hide and seek quite like this as a kid but it's a universal game, which really adds to the creep factor. The book also uses the monster to help the kids deal with grief and trauma. One of the reasons I love horror. It's a perfect genre to do that with.

Before the Ever After by Jaqueline Woodson

Published: September 1st, 2020 by Nancy Paulson Books

Genre: Fiction, Juvenile Fiction

Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages, Library

Rating: 5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

For as long as ZJ can remember, his dad has been everyone's hero. As a charming, talented pro football star, he's as beloved to the neighborhood kids he plays with as he is to his millions of adoring sports fans. But lately life at ZJ's house is anything but charming. His dad is having trouble remembering things and seems to be angry all the time. ZJ's mom explains it's because of all the head injuries his dad sustained during his career. ZJ can understand that--but it doesn't make the sting any less real when his own father forgets his name. As ZJ contemplates his new reality, he has to figure out how to hold on tight to family traditions and recollections of the glory days, all the while wondering what their past amounts to if his father can't remember it. And most importantly, can those happy feelings ever be reclaimed when they are all so busy aching for the past?

My Thoughts:

Heart-breaking! Woodson's way with words is beautiful and sad, poignant, for sure. What is the cost of loving American football so much? This is a look at the tragedies so many families have endured with regards to playing this very dangerous sport from the eyes of a child. It's a must-read.

Mini Book Reviews: Mexican Gothic, The Vanishing Half...

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Published: June 30th, 2020 by Del Rey

Genre: Horror, Historical Fiction

Format: Kindle, 304 Pages, Own

Rating: 5 stars

My Thoughts:

Noemí Taboada and her father receive a frantic and desperate letter from her newly married cousin who explains that she feels her life and sanity may be in danger. Noemi takes up the task to visit the Mexican high-mountain countryside and find out what's truly going on. As she arrives, though, she is both allured and repulsed by her cousin's Englishman husband, horrified at their father Howard Doyle who is decrepit both of body and mind, and High Place with its damp and fungal appearance and the nightmares she soon begins to dream...Is her cousin mad? What secrets and horrors lie beneath?

Noemi is a fantastic character. She's a socialite but one who thinks for herself and has a self-determination to see things through and get to the bottom of it all. I had to take breaks from the book because it was so disturbing in parts. The mood is dark and dank and damp and oppressive. She covers eugenics and colonialism and misogyny and patriarchy. But it all comes together for quite an ending. Go into this book without knowing much about it. It is a true Gothic horror from a fabulous writer. Near perfection.

Ms. Moreno-Garcia has also shared some highlights and quotes and insights from her book on Goodreads. So go check it out if you are interested in reading this one.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Published: September 1st, 2020 by MacMillman Audio

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, LGBTQIA+

Format: Audiobook, 13 hours, Scribd

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

Yadriel's traditional family is having a hard time accepting his gender and therefore they don't think he's a brujo. To prove them wrong he ends up doing the ritual himself alongside his best friend and cousin Maritza. But the ghost he ends up summoning is neighborhood badboy Julian Diaz and not his murdered cousin. But Julian refuses to pass on until he sets a few things right in the real world and Yadriel sets out to help him. But it soon becomes apparent that not all is as it seems. No one can find Julian's body nor the body of his cousin. It's up to Yadriel, Maritza, and Julian to find out what's really going on.

This is a beautifully written tale of Yadriel coming into his own and accepting who he is. We get to learn all about his culture and el Dia de los Muertos. His relationship with his mother who died a little before the books begins is so poignant. The fraught relationship he has with his father and grandmother who are trying but aren't doing enough to accept him for who he is. And the relationship he begins to have with Julian is also beautiful to watch.

The audiobook was well-performed and enjoyed it all. There is even an interview between the author and the audiobook narrator that is fantastic at the end.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Published: June 2nd, 2020 by Riverhead Books

Genre: Literary Fiction

Format: Hardcover, 343 Pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

Two Black light-skinned twins take two very divergent paths. The Vignes sisters Desiree and Stella runaway as teenagers from their town of light-skinned Blacks. Desiree ends up marrying a Black man who abuses her. Her sister Stella decides to pass as White to live the "American Dream." She ends up marrying her boss and moves away and cuts of her family. Desiree flees her abusive marriage to come back home to Mallard with extremely dark daughter Jude. What happens when we flee our origins and become something different? Does it free us or bind us? Ms. Bennett weaves a beautiful story that lets us experience the answers to these questions.

The book is all about the characters and their experiences. This is a beautifully character-driven novel. Brit Bennett knocks it out of the park again. We need more voices such as hers.

Emma by Jane Austen

Published: April 15th, 2004 by Barnes Noble Classics (Originally published December 23rd, 1815)

Genre: Classic

Format: Paperback, 462 Pages, Own

Rating: 3.5 stars

My Thoughts:

I read Emma for the first time back when the Gwyneth Paltrow adaptation came out in the mid-90s. So it's been awhile. The story always feel fresh because there are so many fun adaptations and retellings out there. But I really wanted to get a sense of Emma again now that I'm older and have seen so many versions of her story. I would have to say Emma is not my favorite but she is a more likeable character than Fanny of Mansfield Park. It's quite the little soap opera drama, actually. All the highjinx of a quiet country town with Emma at the center of it all as the richest and thus classiest citizen in its ranks.

I do enjoy the growth of Emma throughout the novel. From matchmaker of Ms. Taylor to failed matchmaking for her friend Harriet to finding love for others in her community to finally finding her own love. I may try an annotated edition and maybe grab a few more tidbits I know I missed. It's still a fun one to read and I'm sure I'll read it again in a few years. 

Mini Book Reviews: Riot Baby and Through the Woods

Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi

Published: January 21st, 2020 by Tor

Genre: Sci-fi/fantasy

Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages, Library

Rating: 4.5 stars

My Thoughts:

This is a poignant look at what could happen if a power is born out of destruction and trauma. Specifically, Black Americans' trauma of police violence, school-to-prison-pipeline, etc. Ella has a power that begins to consume her. She can see people's futures; how they die and when. She soon begins to exhibit even more power. Can she save her brother Kev who's been sent to Riker's island awaiting trail for years with no conviction?

Onyebuchi has a way with words and imagery. Some of the transitional story elements were hard to follow but it's a powerful book and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Published: July 15th, 2014 by Margaret K. McElderry Books

Genre: Horror, Graphic Novel, Young Adult, Short Stories

Format: Paperback, 208 Pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

Ms. Carroll takes us through the woods via various stories. And they are horrific and creepy! Some were a little ambiguous so it was hard to know exactly what happened but I think that adds to the horror, honestly. G read it right before bet one night and had a hard time getting to sleep. I read it the next night and also found my thoughts a bit disturbed before bed.

The illustrations are also terrifying and gorgeous. 

I almost wanted more stories and more of the story, which is why it doesn't get a full five from me. But these are a great collection of terrifying stories. They almost remind me of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark."

*read this as part of the Frightfall Read-a-thon over at Seasons of Reading.

Mini Book Reviews: Stamped, Giovanni's Room...

Stamped: Racism, Anti-racism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Published: March 10th, 2020 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Genre: Young Adult, History, Non-fiction

Format: Hardcover, 294 Pages, Own

Rating: 4.5 stars

My Thoughts:

Jason Reynolds adapted Ibram X. Kendi's award-winning history book Stamped from the Beginning into a book for young adults. That book is almost 600 pages! So that's quite the condensing. Reynolds turns it into more of a dialogue about history and race and how it's all connected. Black history is American history. My son was probably a little too young for some of it since he didn't quite get some of the references. And the book came off very sarcastic--which makes sense if you're talking to someone face to face. That style will work most of the time but sometimes it felt a bit off. But I think it's an excellent book to start to understand, especially for young people, America's true history. There are lots of references and other sites to check out in the back. I'm also still working through Kendi's history book. Gabe and me had some excellent discussions. America needs to change how it teaches and discusses and talks about our history. We can't know how we got here if we don't truly understand what has happened.

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Published: 1956

Genre: Modern Classic

Format: Kindle, 178 Pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

Baldwin writes a beautiful and thoughtful novel on what it means to be gay and black in a world that doesn't really accept either, and especially not together. Giovanni's room haunts him and as us. Paris has never felt more sad or closed and encroaching than in this story.

"And these nights were being acted out under a foreign sky, with on one to watch, no penalties attached--it was this last fact which was our undoing, for nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom."

"Their decisions are not really decisions at all--a real decision makes one humble, one knows that it is at the mercy of more things than can be named--but elaborate systems of evasion, of illusion, designed to make themselves and the world appear to be what they and the world are not."

The Mothers by Brit Bennett

Published: October 11th, 2016 by Riverhead Books

Genre: Literary Fiction

Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

We follow Nadia Turner from high school as she loses her mother to suicide and the consequences that follow. The themes throughout are about motherhood and what it means to choose or not choose to be a mother. We learn more about Nadia's mother and what made her tick. How her life changed when she became pregnant with Nadia. What if she hadn't kept her? Where would her mother be?

It's a short but powerful story. I look forward to her next one.

"...Upper Room had encircled the wailing mother and held her up, soundlessly, because hard deaths resist words. A soft death can be swallowed with Called home to be with the Lord or We'll see her again in glory, but hard deaths get caught in the teeth like gristle."

"We see the span of her life unspooling in colorful threads and we chase it, wrapping it around our hands as more tumbles out. She's her mother's age now. Double her age. Our age You're our mother. We're climbing inside of you."

A Kid's Guide to Native American History: More Than 50 Activities by Yvonne Wakim Dennis

Published: November 1st, 2009 by Chicago Review Press

Genre: Juvenile, Non-fiction, History

Format: Kindle, 256 Pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

I read this out loud with Gabe. We've been diving into history together and this one talks about each Nation in the Americas. Culture, history, famous people. There are activities to do at the end of each chapter and lots of resources to learn more. I thought it was an excellent introduction to Native American history which is also American history.

Morning Girl by Michael Dorris

Published: 1990 

Genre: Juvenile, Historical Fiction

Format: Paperback, 80 Pages, Own

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

Dorris does a fantastic job of letting us experience Morning Girl, Star Boy, and their people on the Caribbean Islands before Columbus arrived and murdered them all. Gabe and I were both sad to learn about Michael Dorris' life. He died a few years after he wrote this book.

No Cats Allowed by Miranda James

Published: February 23rd, 2016 by Berkley

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Format: Paperback, 275 Pages, Own

Rating: 2 stars

My Thoughts:

I shouldn't be too hard on it but it was one of the more poorly written cozy mysteries I've read in awhile. This is number 7 in the series and I haven't read any others. But like a good cozy, you don't need to. The author catches us up on anything we need to know in various ways. The mystery is OK, nothing out of the ordinary. But I didn't like the protagonist. He's a do-gooder with no personality. His kids have no personalities. And it takes place in the south with some benevolent racism thrown in. Meh. Plus the cover has a tabby cat but his cat is a Maine Coon cat so false advertising. Even his girlfriend was someone he only talked to over the phone and it's all very chaste. I know there is an audience for super clean cozy mysteries, but I am not that audience. I got this as a gift so I just wanted to read something easy peasie. It wasn't good but it was OK.

The Oracle Code by Marieke Nijkamp

Published: March 10th, 2020 by DC Comics

Genre: Young Adult, Graphic Novel, Mystery

Format: Paperback, 208 Pages, Librart

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this one. It takes place in Batman's world. Commissioner Gordon's daughter is the ultimate hacker until one night she gets shot and her world changes forever. She ends up in a rehabilitation center where she hears voices in the walls and patients disappear overnight. It's a compelling mystery and it looks like the story will continue in more comics.

Mini Book Reviews: Watchmen...

Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Published: 1987 by DC Comics

Genre: Graphic Comic, Sci-Fi

Format: Paperback, 416 Pages, Library

Rating: 3 stars

Publisher's Summary:

This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin.

One of the most influential graphic novels of all time and a perennial best-seller, Watchmen has been studied on college campuses across the nation and is considered a gateway title, leading readers to other graphic novels such as V for Vendetta, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and The Sandman series.

My Thoughts:

Watchmen is a product of the Cold War. It's all about nuclear arms and Russia and communism, along with a dissection of the psychology of people who would actually put on costumes and become vigilantes. It's interesting. But it's also full of too much talking and not enough character. The women characters are not well-represented. Also, I didn't like the ending. The anti-hero hero is a white supremacist, misogynist, racist, and conspiracy theorist who also is a psychopath....hmmm.

But, the series on HBO is a sequel to the comic series and I feel like they address a lot of the issues I had with comic series. It had a nice finality to it and some kick-ass female characters every step of the way. So I recommend reading this in order to truly enjoy the HBO series!

The Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Published: April 22nd, 2008 by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Sci-fi

Format: Paperback, 320 Pages, Library

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he's never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who's also adopted, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, "You are one of the missing." The second one says, "Beware! They're coming back to get you."

Jonah, Chip, and Jonah's sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere - and people who seem to appear and disappear at will. The kids discover they are caught in a battle between two opposing forces that want very different things for Jonah and Chip's lives.

Do Jonah and Chip have any choice in the matter? And what should they choose when both alternatives are horrifying?

With Found, Margaret Peterson Haddix begins a new series that promises to be every bit as suspenseful as Among the Hidden, and proves her, once again, to be a master of the page-turner. 

My Thoughts:

I read this one for G's school for the Battle of the Books. It's a fun one. I enjoyed the mystery. It looks like every book has quite the cliff-hanger. G has been reading them too and he's already on the third book. He highly recommends them and it's a fun little sci-fi mystery series for kids.

Caliban's War (Expanse #2) by James S.A. Corey

Published: June 26th, 2012 by Orbit (Hachette)

Genre: Sci-fi

Format: Kindle, 595 Pages, Own

Rating: 5 stars

Publisher's Summary:

We are not alone.

On Ganymede, breadbasket of the outer planets, a Martian marine watches as her platoon is slaughtered by a monstrous supersoldier. On Earth, a high-level politician struggles to prevent interplanetary war from reigniting. And on Venus, an alien protomolecule has overrun the planet, wreaking massive, mysterious changes and threatening to spread out into the solar system.

In the vast wilderness of space, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante have been keeping the peace for the Outer Planets Alliance. When they agree to help a scientist search war-torn Ganymede for a missing child, the future of humanity rests on whether a single ship can prevent an alien invasion that may have already begun . . .

Caliban's War is a breakneck science fiction adventure following the critically acclaimed Leviathan Wakes.

My Thoughts:

This is the second book in the Expanse series and it's so fantastic! We learn a lot more about various characters than you get in the TV series. Events are a bit different and that's fun to get both storylines, one from the books and the one from the TV series. Both are fantastic.

The Dutch House

Published: September 24th, 2019 by Harper

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: Audiobook, 12 Hours, Library

Rating: 3 stars

Publisher's Summary:

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

My Thoughts:

Honestly, the only thing that kept me coming back was listening to it with Tom Hanks narrating. It was a fine and interesting story but it didn't draw me in. By the end, I just shrugged my shoulders and thought "what was the point?" Interesting but not profound. That's two Patchett novels I just haven't gotten. I'm just not sure if I'll ever pick up another of her books.

I looked at a few reviews from Goodreads with the same rating as mine and a lot seemed to share my sentiments of what? What's the point? And what was she trying to say?

Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter

Published: January 2nd, 2020 by Audible Studios

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Sci-fi

Format: Audiobook, 5 Hours, 2 Minutes, Own

Rating: 4 stars

Publisher's Summary:

From the author of the best-selling Jane Yellowrock and Soulwood series comes a tough new heroine who is far more than she seems.

After the Final War, after the appearance of the Bug aliens and their enforced peace, Shining Smith is still alive, still doing business from the old scrapyard bequeathed to her by her father. But Shining is now something more than human. And the scrapyard is no longer just a scrapyard, but a place full of secrets that she has guarded for years.

This life she has built, while empty, is predictable and safe. Until the only friend left from her previous life shows up, dead, in the back of a scrapped Tesla warplane, a note to her clutched in his fingers - a note warning her of a coming attack.

Someone knows who she is. Someone knows what she is guarding. Will she be able to protect the scrapyard? Will she even survive? Or will she have to destroy everything she loves to keep her secrets out of the wrong hands?

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this one. Lots of action and battles and cats. I couldn't ask for more...well, maybe a bit better on the dialogue. That was a bit stinted and unnatural. But the performance was fun. And I just loved the intelligent cats. The storyline is pretty sweet, too, with World War III done and over and Chinese nanotech bugs have infiltrated almost everything. I definitely want to read more about Shining and her cats!

Mini Book Reviews: A Map of Days, All That Remains...

Time for another round of mini book reviews! Between traveling by car for 10 hours two ways and some vacation downtime, I read quite a bit this last month. And I haven't had the time nor the inclination to post anything recently...so here ya go.

A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs

Published October 2nd, 2018 by Dutton Books for Young Readers

Genre: Young Adult, fantasy, paranormal

Format: Hardcover, 496 pages, own

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts: 

This is the fourth book in the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series. I enjoyed this just like the others. But it's really a niche series now, in my opinion. It's getting a bit over-the-top. And I'm still slightly unnerved by the romance between Jacob and Emma...Let's just say she used to be in love with his grandfather 60 years ago and he's but a boy of 17? It's hard to come up with coherent stories when you're using old, creepy photographs to build from. But hey it's still a fun ride with all these characters!

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner

Published Originally in 1960, Audiobook 2007

Genre: Young Adult, fantasy

Format: Audiobook, 6 hours and 19 minutes, own

Rating: 3 stars

My Thoughts:

I felt like this was almost a retelling of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," or a very long Dungeons and Dragons game! But it filled the time for our long drive to Washington and it had all the great trappings of dwarves and elves and the Big Bad! Gandalf, I mean, the Wizard is there to help along the way. I thought the children would get more parts but they didn't. They weren't really essential to the story. They kind helped keep the story going and held the stone? I don't know. It was a weird, no-frills fantasy.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Published Originally in 1961, Audiobook 2019
Narrated by Rainn Wilson!

Genre: Young Adult, fantasy

Format: Audiobook, 4 hours and 41 minutes, own

Rating: 5 stars

My Thoughts: 

I absolutely adored this one! I had no idea this was such a classic. It's funny and crazy and has all the puns you can handle and then more. But in a good way! It's a smart kids book and we all loved listening to this on our long drive! It's one we'll relisten to again and again. And Rainn Wilson was the best narrator! He's a voice man and it shows.

Aru Shah and the Song of Death by Roshani Chokshi

Published April 30th, 2019
Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy, Myth

Format: Hardcover, 381 pages, own

Rating: 4 stars

My Thoughts:

This is the second book in the Pandava Quartet series. G and I both loved it. Great action and crazy characters and world-building, along with some lessons about friendship and second chances.

All That Remains: A Life in Death by Sue Black

Published April 15th, 2018
Genre: Non-fiction, Memoir, Science, True-crime

Format: Hardcover, 368 pages, Library

Rating: 5 stars

My Thoughts:

Sue Black fills us in on how she got started in forensic anthropology, her process, how they solve crimes, identify bodies, and handle all-things death. She tells us about her time in Kosovo and handling mass graves. It's heady stuff. I won't deny I shed a few tears throughout her memoir. I now want to go to Scotland and die by her university so I can donate my body to it and science! Read the book to find out why! Also, as one who has been surrounded by the dead her whole life, she has some pretty amazing insights into the human condition and Lady Death Herself. 

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Okinyan Braithwaite

Published November 20th, 2018
Genre: Literary Fiction, Mystery, Satire

Format: Kindle, 228 pages, Own

Rating: 3 stars

My Thoughts:

I love the cover. Gorgeous. I enjoyed the thoughts of Korede as she struggles to deal with her serial killer sister, Ayoola. It's a satire but I'll admit a lot of it went over my head. Topics of culture and gender roles and family loyalty all play out in this quick novel. It would be a great book club book to explore the issues with others.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

Goodreads Summary:

Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author. Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the lost love who, sixty years ago in Poland, inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives... 

What I liked:

• The characters were all very interesting and different.
• The overall story was a beautiful concept.
• I enjoyed Alma's search for the author of this amazing book.

Didn't like:

• The story was hard to follow. There are various characters and there are various times in history as well. I'm still a bit confused.
• I wanted the story to have more impact for these characters at the end. It felt a little lackluster. But maybe that's the point. Life is life and sometimes--well, most of the time life doesn't turn out how we expect.

Overall, it's a pretty story but a little harsher than I was expecting.